Business owners often wonder, should I Outsource my I.T. Department?
We usually respond by asking a question of our own – Do you think I.T. is a role, or is it a department?
We believe that it is next to impossible to fulfill all the expectations of the typical business’ technology plans with one person. If you’re thinking of handling IT inside your business, you will need multiple people with different knowledge, skills, and experiences to fulfill all of the typical IT responsibilities. For this reason, most small and medium businesses have moved to outsource their IT departments, and here are some reasons why:
I.T. services better serve your business when they are outsourced. The typical business doesn’t need a full time server administrator, or support technician, or Chief Information Officer, so why would you employ one, or all three of those people full-time when you can get access to qualified professionals on a fractional basis? Small and medium enterprises frequently outsource key business services. Services such as marketing, payroll, and logistics are often outsourced to companies with more expertise and resources needed to complete that services. Studies have shown that around 70% of B2B decision-makers said they had given critical tasks to third parties to accomplish their business goals.
Outsourcing your I.T. is no different Regardless of how you choose to fulfill these tasks, I.T. strategy and solutions should not be considered optional if you are serious about growing your business, improving efficiency, and lowering your risk. Your IT team ensures that your business systems and software are operationally sound, just as an airline works proactively to ensure their planes are safe and ready to serve their clients. The closer you can integrate the IT team into your departmental operations the greater your return on investment will be, especially if you believe that technology is a strategic differentiator and a competitive advantage. Here are the top 3 reasons we think you should outsource your I.T. to a Managed Service Provider.
More Available Time & Resources
Your people have better things to do with their time; free up your . When you hire a proactive IT management company to oversee your company’s information technology, they will develop a plan of action to reduce interruptions and free up your internal time and resources so that you and your staff can do what you do best – providing excellent service to your customers!
Less Over Head & More Profits
By far the biggest cost in building an IT department is the labour required to fulfill all the different roles. When you look at the expectations, most businesses would need to hire a minimum of two full-time employees who are highly skilled to do anywhere close to the work that an MSP can do. An MSP such as Tier 3 I.T. Solutions will take on all the costs for labour, equipment, and most of the software required to deliver a highly functional IT department. All while bringing you a diverse, functional team that is focused on improving your efficiency overall. This model means that you get access to top talent at a fraction of the cost to hire and build the team internally.
More comprehensive Range of Skill Sets
Leading MSP’s have a proactive approach to hiring and developing their team. They hire to fill a variety of positions who combine their skillset and focus on delivering an outstanding experience to their clients. In a proactive MSP you will find people who specialize in Security, Automations, Support, Project Delivery, Strategy, and Operations (plus more). You can infer quite quickly that one or two people hired internally would struggle to deliver on all of those expectations, which is why most small and medium businesses cannot justify bringing their IT departments in-house and will outsource it instead.
The MSP’s approach to IT team building will also reduce your business risk overall, as they have people dedicated to reviewing, planning, and implementing current best practices across their client base. This is something that a small, internal IT team will likely never have time to do as they often spend their days immersed in support tickets and urgent issues as opposed to developing strategies to efficiently enhance the security of their network overall. The MSP can invest in these initiatives because it benefits every one of their clients and thus improves their service delivery overall – it’s a true “win-win!”
I.T. Support in Edmonton, Alberta
At Tier 3 IT, our I.T. consultants will help you design a technology strategy that will help you overcome business challenges and achieve your business goals. For us, technology is so much more than the “bits and bytes” that most providers focus on. As one of Edmonton’s leading Managed I.T. Service Providers, we know what it takes to build and implement these plans for businesses of all sizes.
If you still wish to have an in-person I.T. team member that reports to you, give us a call, and let’s discuss our fractional I.T. team member options. Alternatively, if you’re ready to discuss starting the process of working with an MSP, visit our contact us page and reach out to one of our team members.
